Once you decide to break
your company free from a traditional phone system, one of things that make
adopting IP Telephony attractive is the ability to use a VoIP provider to save
on phone call costs.
But, in the last few years,
an overwhelming choice of VoIP providers have emerged following the booming in
the IP PBX market and the staggering growth of VoIP. So, how do you know which
one to choose? A useful piece of advice is to base your selection of VoIP
provider expressly on your business’ needs.
With this in mind, here are
five useful tips that can help you decide which VoIP provider’s services to
engage:
1. Check the VoIP
provider’s international call rates based on your real needs.
While VoIP providers offer
cheaper rates than most conventional telephone companies (PSTN), choosing the
most adequate Voice over IP service for your specific needs and calling
patterns is very important. Rates vary among VoIP providers according to call
destinations. Make sure you do not take into consideration only their ‘overall
ranking’ as a cheap or expensive VoIP provider, but study their individual
rates for the countries you usually call to. For example, if you have business
partners only in Sweden, France and Italy, you should not be interested if
their call rates to the Far East are the cheapest in the market. Focus on your
real needs.
2. Make sure the
quality of phone calls meets your company’s standards.
Many VoIP providers have
very cheap rates on offer but deliver very bad voice quality. If you have a
business that relies on customer service over the phone, then you might want to
make sure you have optimal voice quality even if you need to pay a bit extra.
If you only use phone calls for staff to staff communication, then you might be
willing to compromise voice quality to increase savings.
3. Consider SIP trunking as
an option.
SIP trunking is a feature
offered by some VoIP providers. It allows businesses to conveniently converge
local, long distance and broadband internet onto a single pipe. A SIP trunk is
the modern day equivalent of a T1 trunk. Where in the past a business would
acquire a T1 trunk from a telecommunications provider and connect it to their
proprietary PBX, today companies can buy a SIP trunk from a VoIP provider to be
connected to an IP PBX.
4. Don’t compromise
on reliability.
There are new VoIP
providers emerging pretty much every week all over the world. Most of these new
VoIP providers market themselves with promises of being the cheapest, most
reliable and offering the best voice quality. But, the same way that these VoIP
providers appear, they disappear, too. Conduct some research in your market to
find out which VoIP providers are established and have a good reputation. The
last thing you want for your business is to end up without the ability to make
or receive phone calls from one minute to the next.
5. Make sure you use
an IP PBX that works well with VoIP providers.
The most important element
in IP telephony will be your IP PBX software. Make sure you choose one that is
easy to install, configure and manage, offers you enterprise-level features,
and works well with popular VoIP gateways and VoIP providers.
That’s all. Now you will be
able choose the perfect VoIP services for your business or home.
Contact us
0 comments:
Post a Comment